WASHINGTON — During the bleakest days of the Great Recession, Congress agreed in bipartisan
votes to bail out two of Detroit’s biggest businesses, General Motors and Chrysler.

However, now that Detroit stands as the largest American city ever to file for bankruptcy
protection, there seems little appetite from either Democrats or Republicans in Washington for a
federal rescue of the birthplace of the automobile industry.

Such a bailout would be huge, perhaps as much as $20 billion.Federal resources are strained,
with the national debt at $16.7 trillion and the federal government struggling under the
constraints of automatic spending cuts that took effect in March.

Political leaders in Washington haven’t pushed for a bailout of Detroit, which was the nation’s
fourth-largest city in the 1950s but since has had a declining population, accelerated by hard
times for the auto industry during and right after the punishing 2008-09 recession.

The White House is taking a wait-and-see approach but clearly exhibiting little enthusiasm for
another big bailout.

“Can we help Detroit? We don’t know,” Vice President Joe Biden said in response to a reporter’s
question about a possible federal rescue.Presidential spokesman Jay Carney, when asked directly
whether a bailout was a possibility, appeared to rule out such assistance.

“We will, of course, as we would with any city in this country, work with that city and have
policy discussions with leaders in the city, and make suggestions and offer assistance where we
can,” Carney said. “But on the issue of insolvency … that’s something that local leaders and
creditors are going to have to resolve. But we will be partners in an effort to assist the city and
the state as they move forward.”

Local leaders aren’t pushing for a federal bailout after the city filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy
protection on Thursday, and Republican Gov. Rick Snyder isn’t, either.

“People should not expect bailouts at either the federal or the state level,” Snyder said. “We’v
e been very diligent about this. We want to be a supportive partner at the state level. I believe
the federal government does (too).”

Members of Michigan’s congressional delegation aren’t clamoring just yet for a federal bailout.“
We just need to step back and think about it,” said Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich.

The city’s emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, says that for now, Detroit will stay open, bills will
be paid and city services provided.

“The chances of a federal bailout are remote” given partisan gridlock in Washington, said Bruce
Katz, a former official with the Department of Housing and Urban Development who now is director of
the metropolitan policy program for the Washington-based Brookings Institution.

“But I don’t think the federal government is off the hook,” Katz said. “It is a substantial
investor in Detroit. Whether it’s community-development block grants or federal contracts or
assistance to nongovernmental recipients, there’s a substantial amount of federal money that goes
into Detroit. There’s a role for the federal government. And it needs to make its resources more
flexible than today and align them with the priorities of Detroit.”